


Temporal Tipping Point

by smilebackwards



Category: Doctor Who, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-06
Updated: 2011-07-06
Packaged: 2017-11-02 15:03:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/370291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilebackwards/pseuds/smilebackwards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been eighteen years since they spun through space and time and the Doctor left Charles back in 1944 with a tweak on the nose and the words, "You need to be here and now. You, Charles, are going to shape the future."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Temporal Tipping Point

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/4418.html?thread=5615938#t5615938) [](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/profile)[**1stclass_kink**](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/) prompt. Basically, the Doctor arrives during the beach scene and changes history.

There's a whooshing noise and Charles wonders if Erik knocked something loose in his head when he punched him because he hasn't heard that sound since he was ten years old and his telepathy manifested so painfully it called a psychic spaceship into his bedroom.

"Charles, run!" the Doctor yells and Charles is up and moving before the words are even out because he and the Doctor always ran, back on Tellia and Sarah II and even on Omega where everyone was a telepath but there were rules that Charles didn't understand and couldn't follow.

Bullets spin past him, spitting up sand on impact. One slices into his arm and Charles screams but he doesn't stop until he's five feet from the TARDIS and the Doctor tackles him down to safety.

Face half buried in the sand, Charles watches Erik let the missiles explode harmlessly in the air. He thinks the first explosion echoed his scream.

"Charles," the Doctor says, helping Charles sit up and reaching around to run his hands frantically along Charles' spine, "Charles, _are you all right?_ "

Charles winces and pulls back his sleeve to look at the bullet wound on his arm, a scorched line of blood. "I'm fine, Doctor. Only a graze," he says. And then he just says, "Doctor!" and throws himself at the man because it's been eighteen years since they spun through space and time and the Doctor left Charles back in 1944 with a tweak on the nose and the words, "You need to be here and now. You, Charles, are going to shape the future."

The Doctor hugs him a little too tight and Charles wonders whether he really came to stop Erik and his missiles or if a different crisis altogether has been narrowly averted.

Charles stands, brushing sand off his jumpsuit. "Hullo," he says, running an affectionate palm along the blue boards of the TARDIS. She whooshes and chirps in happy response and Charles can hear her say, motherly, _Charles, Charles, you've grown up so beautifully._

"Charles," Erik says, overlapping, broken and shocked, pulling Charles away from the Doctor and the TARDIS who taught Charles about peace and responsibility and took him to meet a man who said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

"I never meant to hurt you," Erik says tightly, eyes pleading. He probes at Charles' wound until Charles' blood is all over his hands.

 _You still don't understand,_ Charles thinks even though Erik can't hear him through Shaw's helmet. His arm throbs, but that isn't the worst way Erik has hurt him.

"Let me go, please," Charles says, quietly, eyes closed, because it's too hard to look at Erik right now with the frightened relief of a thousand men in his mind and blood dripping off his wrist, the children staring at them in horror, like their make-shift family is breaking apart in front of their eyes.

Erik lets him go, steps away.

"Raven," Charles calls, motioning her over, because she's his baby sister and she looks terrified, hands covering her mouth like she's blocking a scream. She runs to him, throwing her arms around his waist the way she did as a child when there were thunderstorms and she couldn't stand the flashes of lightening, the rumbling thunder, the rain lashing against her window, loud. She used to climb into bed with Charles, tucking her face into his neck. He would tell her stories.

"Raven," Charles says, "This is the Doctor."

"From your stupid, but apparently true, alien stories," Raven nods. "Why is he wearing a bow tie?" she asks.

"Bow ties are cool," Charles and the Doctor say simultaneously and then smile hugely at each other. Charles breathes out, consciously, for the first time in hours. "Doctor, this is my sister, Raven."

"You are extremely lovely and extremely ginger," the Doctor tells Raven, looking a bit longingly at her hair.

"Thanks?" Raven says, her grip on Charles' waist loosening a bit.

The boys have edged their way over and Charles gathers them in. "And these are my students. Alex, Sean and Hank."

"Professor..." Hank says, tentatively, when the Doctor calls him fantastic and proceeds to wave his sonic screw driver around him, muttering about cell enhancement.

"Ah, yes," Charles says, clapping his hands and beaming at the Doctor, "I'm a professor now. The children often refer to me as the Professor or, more whimsically, Professor X."

"Brilliant!" the Doctor enthuses. "I knew a Professor once. Nice bloke. Bit scattered. Loved tweed."

"Tweed is cool," Charles says, his voice vaguely defensive, like he's had a previous argument on the subject and not come out ahead. Raven rolls her eyes.

A splash draws Charles' attention and he watches Shaw's helmet, Erik's helmet, disappear into the water like a sinking ship. Easing out of Raven's hold, he goes over to sit beside Erik at the water's edge. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,_ Erik broadcasts, an endless litany.

 _I know,_ Charles says, whisper-soft, like a kiss, _It's going to be all right._ He takes Erik's hands and submerges them in the surf, washing off the blood. Erik scours under his fingernails with sand, scrubs his hands furiously until they're pink and raw and Charles says, "Stop. Erik, stop."

Behind them, the TARDIS whooshes, _Goodbye, Charles._

 _Goodbye,_ Charles says.

Charles helps Erik stand. Raven and the boys drift over. Shaw's teleporter and wind-maker hover uncertainly and Angel--her singed wings gathered close against her back--stands immobile halfway between them and the rest of the children. If Charles avoids looking at Shaw's body, stretched out like a crucifixion on the sand, he can tell himself it's all right, everyone lived.

Charles holds his hands out to anyone who will take them. "Let's go home," he says.

 


End file.
